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| Artist image of the Mastodon |
ScienceDaily, October 20, 2011
A new and
astonishing chapter has been added to North American prehistory in regards to
the first hunters and their hunt for the now extinct giant mammoth-like
creatures -- the mastodons. Professor Eske Willerslev's team from the Centre
for GeoGenetics, University of Copenhagen, has in collaboration with Michael
Waters' team at the Center for the Study of the First Americans, University of
Texas A&M, shown that the hunt for large mammals occurred at least 1,000
years before previously assumed.
This new study
concludes that the first-known hunters in North America can now be dated back
at least 14,000 years.
"I am sure
that especially the Native Americans are pleased with the results of the study.
It is further proof that humans have been present in North America for longer
than previously believed. The "Clovis First" theory, which many
scientists swore to just a few years back, has finally been buried with the
conclusions of this study," says Professor Eske Willerslev, director of
the Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University
of Copenhagen.
Spearhead found
in mastodon
It is the finding
and analysis of a tip from a human-made projectile point (spearhead) gathered
from the remains of a mastodon that is behind the rewriting of North American
prehistory. The spearhead, which itself was carved out from a mastodon-bone,
was found at the Manis site in the state of Washington when archaeologists
excavated a mastodon in the late 1970s.
However, 30 years
would pass before a team of researchers was able to put a date on the spearhead
and establish the identity of both the bone and the spearhead that had been
embedded into the rib of the defeated mastodon. This was done through, amongst
other things, DNA analysis, protein sequencing, advanced computer technology,
Carbon-14 dating as well as comparisons with other mastodon findings in North
America, for instance in the state of Wisconsin.
Clovis culture
challenged
The first traces of
the hunt for mastodons in North America have previously been attributed the
so-called Clovis culture. Clovis culture dates back approximately 13,000 years
and is viewed as a type of common culture ancestral for all Native American
tribes in North America.
"Our research
now shows that other hunters were present at least 1,000 years prior to the
Clovis culture. Therefore, it was not a sudden war or a quick slaughtering of
the mastodons by the Clovis culture, which made the species disappear. We can
now conclude that the hunt for the animals stretched out over a much longer
period of time. At this time, however, we do not know if it was the man-made
hunt for the mastodons, mammoths and other large animals from the so-called
mega-fauna, which caused them to become extinct and disappear. Maybe the reason
was something complete different, for instance the climate," states
Professor Eske Willerslev.
The Road to
America
It is no more than
three years ago that Eske Willerslev and his research team established that the
first traces of humans in North America are approximately 14,340 years old, and
that the current Native Americans in the USA are descendants of these migrants
who came from Asia. This was done using Carbon-14 dating and DNA analysis of
human remains found in caves in the state of Oregon.
Professor
Eske Willerslev has been able to add a new chapter to North American prehistory
by mapping the now first-known hunters in this part of the world.
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